Duck Eggs, Quail Eggs, Pheasant Eggs, Oh My!

Check out my egg carton:


I feel a little weird about shilling for Whole Foods, but their new egg offerings at the store on Bowery are too exciting to keep to myself. The three dark greenish brown eggs are pheasant eggs, the quail of course are the little speckled guys, and the two ducks are the waxy-looking eggs on the end.

Update: All of the eggs I'm showing off in my carton are available at Quattro Farms on Saturday at the Union Square Greenmarket, too. They also sell Turkey eggs. Duck eggs sell out early, so get there before noon for those especially tasty treats. And it's worth noting that the pheasant eggs are fully one-third the price at Quattro farms versus the exorbitant prices at WF.

I already purchased two duck eggs last week, which I poached in an asparagus soup. That was lovely, if I do say so myself. The duck eggs are slightly larger than chicken eggs, and much richer, pretty much as you would expect. The shell of the duck egg has a slightly oily feel. They start young with that, I guess, those ducks. A little greasy. Not gamy at all, though. Very tasty indeed.

I thought of making a turducken-esque fried egg sandwich with my new batch of eggs, stacking the quail egg on the pheasant on the duck. We'll see.

This weekend, I hope to go whole hog, return to whole foods and get an ostrich egg and go to town with it. Another shopper was hefting one of these four pound giants for comedic effect yesterday, yelling, Who buys this? Someone who really loves omelets? I guess someone who really loves omelets and who has thirty dollars to burn, because that's how much one egg costs. Goddamn Whole Foods. There, does that make up for the shill? See the note about the cost of eggs at Quattro farms above.

In any case, I don't really love omelets, and I don't really love the idea of spending thirty dollars on one egg, but I'm going to do it anyway. Because that's a really giant egg and I must have it. Where you can get it: 95 East Houston St, New York, NY 10002 212.420.1320.

And lastly, if you'd like to see Julia Child bash an ostrich egg with a mallet (and if you wouldn't, I'm not sure I understand you) look here. Lovely.